Behavioral Health & Stabilization Clinician

Job Description

Job Description

Description:

ABOUT US:

Women's Lunch Place is a safe, welcoming daytime shelter and advocacy center for women experiencing hunger, homelessness, and poverty. We offer a supportive community that provides healthy meals, housing support, wellness programming, and other critical services designed to restore dignity and empowers women to make positive changes in their lives.

POSITION SUMMARY

Working as a Behavioral Health and Stabilization Clinician, you provide professional, timely and effective clinical services to women experiencing poverty and homelessness, sited at WLP. You are responsive to a diverse and challenging guest community, flexible to guests’ needs, identify how best to achieve short and long-term goals, recommend and offer guests the tools and support to solve their problems, effectively plan the closing of cases and support women through this transition, and providing appropriate follow-up assistance. As part of our care team, you will work with BHCHP and WLP staff and volunteers to engage guests and coordinate services according to our integrated model of care, helping vulnerable women gain access to housing, mental health services, substance use disorder treatment, and other critical services.

Reports to: Clinical Director 

Direct Report: N/A

Exempt Status : Exempt 

Position Status : Full-time, Tuesday – Saturday 

Salary: $87,000 - 90,000 annually

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

Clinical Case Management:

• Establish and cultivate supportive and trusting relationships with guests, provide all responses and interventions in a therapeutic manner, integrating client-centered and trauma-informed techniques and other modalities as necessary (i.e. harm reduction, cognitive behavioral, motivational interviewing). Provide responsive assistance to solve immediate concerns and needs. 
• Provides initial behavioral health evaluation, intakes, ongoing assessments, evaluations, support services to guests and ongoing individual and group therapy (if indicated) as well as episodic crisis-stabilization services.
• Utilize clinical case management to therapeutically support newly housed guests through offsite home visits and on-site behavioral healthcare.
• Work with guest on goals, create an action plan and schedule follow-up appointments to advance guests stability, make referrals for professional help with physical & mental health, addiction and any other needs as appropriate.
• Perform bio-psych-socials for treatment referrals.
• Develop guest safety and goal plans.
• Evaluate interventions on on-going basis.
• Facilitate on-site groups.
• Provide weekly drop in therapy to help facilitate guests’ connection with resources.
• Meet with guests for individual psychotherapy using BHCHP protocols for appropriate duration and frequency. 
• Provide support and training to clinical interns.

Community

• Develop and maintain relationships with other critical service providers. Work with DMH and other shelter providers to coordinate care for highly vulnerable guests.
• Accompany guests when appropriate, to meetings and appointments for housing, court, and wellness.
• Attend offsite meetings and workshops and other tasks as required.

Daily Operations:

• Work schedule includes weekly drop-in clinical hours, scheduled appointments with guests, and office hours. Also includes training, workshops and WLP/BHCHP commitments.
• Act as a liaison with BCHP, shelter Direct Care & Resource Center staff and volunteers as needed.
• Support guests’ needs in accordance with policies and procedures manual.
• Maintain staff, volunteer, donor and guest confidentiality.
• Participate in WLP community holiday celebrations and events, when possible.
• Create a safe and welcoming environment for staff, volunteers and guests.

Administrative:

• Ensure interactions with guests are documented, in a timely way, in the appropriate system/s.
• Accurate, timely reporting and billing in BHCHP Epic system compliant with all BHCHP protocols.
• Accurate and timely reporting logging visit date and general topic in File Maker not including any confidential information and incident reporting.
• Accurate and timely reporting of financial data including petty cash, check requests, gift card requests, and credit card purchases. 
• Perform other tasks as assigned.

QUALIFICATIONS:

To perform this job successfully you must be passionate about our mission of helping vulnerable women in need and be able to perform each essential duty/function satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill and/or ability required. 

• LCSW required,  LICSW or pathway to LICSW preferred.
• Experience with addiction and mental illness among homeless.
• Knowledge of the impact of trauma, and trauma-informed and trauma-specific care treatment.
• Knowledge of community and health resources for women, especially treatment for mental illness and addiction.
• Familiarity with state and federal legal systems regarding immigration, housing and behavioral health treatment. 

Language Skills:

• Bilingual in Cantonese, Spanish, Haitian Creole or Portuguese preferred.
• Positive, respectful, non-judgmental attitude.
• Effective verbal, written and interpersonal skills.
• Sensitivity to ethnic, cultural, racial, and gender beliefs and behaviors.

Other Skills and Abilities:

• Ability to abide by WLP Professional Ethics & Boundaries policy. 
• Ability to set limits in a clear and respectful manner.
• Interest in working with DMH, Detox & Recovery programs, local shelters, and city street outreach teams to help women into specialized programs.
• Ability to work with women with dual or multiple disorders or diagnoses.
• Ability to learn and take initiative in a fast-paced environment.
• Ability to respond to and prioritize multiple requests for assistance.
• Access to automobile for work related travel preferred.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

Physical and Environmental Requirements:

The physical demands described herein are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Physical activities include:

The employee primarily sits, but is occasionally required to stand, walk, and use hands to finger, handle or feel controls. The employee must occasionally lift and/or move up to 10 pounds. Specific vision and hearing abilities required by this job include close vision and distance vision and ability to hear conversations in office and group settings. Attendance at meetings in the community is required. 

Work Environment:

The noise level in the shelter is generally high. The employee will be exposed to occasional disruptive behaviors in the shelter and/or community dining room. Women’s Lunch Place is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.

Women’s Lunch Place offers a rewarding work environment with competitive salary, generous benefits and a strong commitment to diversity in its workforce and programs.  Women’s Lunch Place does not discriminate based on race, color, gender or gender identity, religion, national origin, sexual orientation or disability.